Water supply not equitable

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 23. Supply of drinking water in the Capital is characterised by vastly unequal distribution, with posh colonies and VIP areas getting several times the supply given to rural areas and resettlement colonies.

It might come as a surprise that the level of water supply in the Cantonment Board is as many as 18 times the level in the Mehrauli area. And even if Lutyen's Delhi and the Cantonment Board are excluded, supply in Karol Bagh is highest and 12 times more than that of Mehrauli and 11 times more than Narela.

Despite claims by the Delhi Jal Board of equitable distribution, these facts have been revealed by the recently published Status Report for Delhi 21, jointly prepared by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Delhi Government.

Whereas people in Mehrauli in South Delhi and Narela in North- West Delhi receive only 29 and 31 litres per person per day respectively, those in the Cantonment Board get 509 litres and Lutyen's Delhi 462 litres. The Karol Bagh zone receives 337 litres per person per day.

Though the report conceded that the overall low level of supply in Narela and Mehrauli to some extent was logical as these areas included a large number of villages, it said: ``However, a low level of 29 and 31 lpcd can not be justified for any part of Delhi''.

The per capita daily water supply should be at least 150 litres as per the standards set by the Central Public Health and Environment Engineering Organisation of the Union Urban Development Ministry. Even if this is taken as a barometre, even then South Delhi receives just 148 lpcd.

Without revealing further details, insiders in DJB conceded that while the posh colonies were supplied with more water, short supply was being resorted to in Government colonies, slum clusters and resettlement colonies.

According to the report, Najafgarh and Dwarka receive 74 lpcd, Shahdara 130, West Delhi 202, Paharganj 201, Civil Lines and Rohini 247 and City Zone 277 lpcd. Similar conclusion were arrived at by a French scholar during her study on the water supply in Delhi.

It said those areas with high concentration of affluent households were supplied with more water than those in the recently developed colonies, having haphazard growth and having a sizable population living in unauthorised colonies.

The report stated that in several areas people received less than the minimum standard recommended by the National Commission for Urbanisation in 1988, which put it at 70 lpcd for households not connected to a network by individual connections.

``In the richer localities more than 60 per cent of the households consume more than 30 cubic litres per month while the consumption level in two less well-off localities was lower by 25 per cent. These discrepancies are even larger for households without individual connections,'' it said.

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